The first rule of surviving the apocalypse is that nobody knows that you have a shelter stocked with food and supplies. Since everyone in the area will know about this place, and if you buy it and stock up they'll know about you, you won't last a week before the hordes of survivors who haven't got huge supplies of food, water, medicine etc manage to break in and ransack the place.

Flint Ironstag:The first rule of surviving the apocalypse is that nobody knows that you have a shelter stocked with food and supplies. Since everyone in the area will know about this place, and if you buy it and stock up they'll know about you, you won't last a week before the hordes of survivors who haven't got huge supplies of food, water, medicine etc manage to break in and ransack the place.

I work for a certain government agency, the acronym of which rhymes with FEMA. There are a frightening number of people I work with who are preppers. You know, people working for the agency meant to prevent that kind of sh*t? Yeah.

They love to discuss how they've prepared and where, many of them less than 20 miles from my home. Like you said, maybe they shouldn't be so vocal. Sh*t hits the fan, and I'll just try and hostile take-over the stuff they've told me about in detail.

Sid_6.7:Flint Ironstag: The first rule of surviving the apocalypse is that nobody knows that you have a shelter stocked with food and supplies. Since everyone in the area will know about this place, and if you buy it and stock up they'll know about you, you won't last a week before the hordes of survivors who haven't got huge supplies of food, water, medicine etc manage to break in and ransack the place.

I work for a certain government agency, the acronym of which rhymes with FEMA. There are a frightening number of people I work with who are preppers. You know, people working for the agency meant to prevent that kind of sh*t? Yeah.

They love to discuss how they've prepared and where, many of them less than 20 miles from my home. Like you said, maybe they shouldn't be so vocal. Sh*t hits the fan, and I'll just try and hostile take-over the stuff they've told me about in detail.

How do you know it's not a ruse to lure you into a trap with poisoned nachos?

Sid_6.7:Flint Ironstag: The first rule of surviving the apocalypse is that nobody knows that you have a shelter stocked with food and supplies. Since everyone in the area will know about this place, and if you buy it and stock up they'll know about you, you won't last a week before the hordes of survivors who haven't got huge supplies of food, water, medicine etc manage to break in and ransack the place.

I work for a certain government agency, the acronym of which rhymes with FEMA. There are a frightening number of people I work with who are preppers. You know, people working for the agency meant to prevent that kind of sh*t? Yeah.

They love to discuss how they've prepared and where, many of them less than 20 miles from my home. Like you said, maybe they shouldn't be so vocal. Sh*t hits the fan, and I'll just try and hostile take-over the stuff they've told me about in detail.

Wonder who paid for original construction. Every few years another taxpayer funded lair is abandoned as better and more expensive ones are built. We're told COG (Continuity Of Government). Real reason: rich powerful people are better than you and they get to survive.

Sid_6.7:I work for a certain government agency, the acronym of which rhymes with FEMA. There are a frightening number of people I work with who are preppers. You know, people working for the agency meant to prevent that kind of sh*t? Yeah.

They love to discuss how they've prepared and where, many of them less than 20 miles from my home. Like you said, maybe they shouldn't be so vocal. Sh*t hits the fan, and I'll just try and hostile take-over the stuff they've told me about in detail.

/commenting here as a private citizen, naturally

I dunno. If I spent all my work hours focused on disasters and how much damage they could wreak I'd probably be a prepper too. It's gotta be a little depressing sitting at work always thinking "ok, so what are all the bad things that could happen if a hurricane hit this way and destroyed all this infrastructure?"

DON'T TELL ANYBODY WHERE YOUR SECRET LAIR IS: Even if you haven't yet committed a crime, just KNOWING you have a secret lair some hero will crash in and accuse you of any number of things. Keep it secret so you can plan world domination uninterrupted.

KrispyKritter:Wonder who paid for original construction. Every few years another taxpayer funded lair is abandoned as better and more expensive ones are built. We're told COG (Continuity Of Government). Real reason: rich powerful people are better than you and they get to survive.

In the comments some guy said it was built by AT&T to house up to 5 workers for up to 30 days to reestablish communications in case of a nuclear disaster. Don't know how accurate that is.

FloydA:Whoever buys this, thinking it will protect them from bombs, zombies, the apocalypse or whatever is going to be really pissed when sea levels rise just a few feet and submerge the whole thing.

I quick search finds that it's 47 feet above sea level so even with a large hurricane at high tide, it's unlikely to be submerged. It's probably at or near the local high spot for the area since Florida is for the most part as flat as Keira Knightley.

I was a kid in Sarasota, FL during the Cuban Missle Crisis, Twelve years old or so. It was a very freaky time.

The basement level of our church was a designated fall out shelter, with 55 gallon drums of water, crackers and such.

Sarasota is about sixty miles south of MacDill AFB, a primary Soviet target back then. Given the accuracy of Soviet ICBMs back then, any fired to hit that had about as good a chance of exploding over our house as over the AFB.

Just down Ringling Blvd, next to the paint store, some company set up shop selling fall out shelters. they had one model on the lot above ground. After 1962 or so, the bottom dropped out on that market and they went out of business. The lot became a used car dealership and the fall out shelter model got turned into the sales office, after they cut windows into it. I and my folks moved away in 1970, but I went back last September when we moved Mom into a condo in Sarasota. The used car lot and the fall out shelter/office is long gone. However, a friend told me those 55 gallon drums are still in the church basement.

That thing looks like it would take another $100K, on top of the $500k, just to clean it up and get shiat running again. Probably more than that if there's asbestos in there (which there probably is). Better off saving for a mid-west missile silo instead.

DON'T TELL ANYBODY WHERE YOUR SECRET LAIR IS: Even if you haven't yet committed a crime, just KNOWING you have a secret lair some hero will crash in and accuse you of any number of things. Keep it secret so you can plan world domination uninterrupted.

I dunno....if your lair was a hollow volcano staffed with leather-clad female ninjas, you'd really have to tell SOMEONE just to show it off, you know?

DigitalCoffee:That thing looks like it would take another $100K, on top of the $500k, just to clean it up and get shiat running again. Probably more than that if there's asbestos in there (which there probably is). Better off saving for a mid-west missile silo instead.

Not even close.

If it's full of hazardous materials you are talking about serious money just to clean the thing out. Plus whatever you spend refurbishing it.

Also. If I were a prepper I would not be looking at a bunker right next to a major highway.

ongbok:KrispyKritter: Wonder who paid for original construction. Every few years another taxpayer funded lair is abandoned as better and more expensive ones are built. We're told COG (Continuity Of Government). Real reason: rich powerful people are better than you and they get to survive.

In the comments some guy said it was built by AT&T to house up to 5 workers for up to 30 days to reestablish communications in case of a nuclear disaster. Don't know how accurate that is.

This is true. Last I knew it was most recently it was the 911 / County Emergency Center, I actually didnt know they had moved out.What isn't mentioned is its perfect location for hiring henchmen, located conveniently adjacent to "Rock Road", the county lock-up.

I'll forward this to my in-laws. Since they have retired they watch a lot of Fox and not only are they sure that Obama is going to take their guns but they stopped by the house with potassium iodide tablet for when he starts nuking us.

Flint Ironstag:The first rule of surviving the apocalypse is that nobody knows that you have a shelter stocked with food and supplies. Since everyone in the area will know about this place, and if you buy it and stock up they'll know about you, you won't last a week before the hordes of survivors who haven't got huge supplies of food, water, medicine etc manage to break in and ransack the place.

I work for a certain government agency, the acronym of which rhymes with FEMA. There are a frightening number of people I work with who are preppers. You know, people working for the agency meant to prevent that kind of sh*t? Yeah.

They love to discuss how they've prepared and where, many of them less than 20 miles from my home. Like you said, maybe they shouldn't be so vocal. Sh*t hits the fan, and I'll just try and hostile take-over the stuff they've told me about in detail.

/commenting here as a private citizen, naturally

I worked with a couple of DoD nuts. One had his doomsday redoubt about 200 hundred miles away in southern Missouri. Since he was in Illinois, I asked him what he would do if the bridges were knocked down or blocked. He said he could swim across the Mississippi River. He was also certain that the new National Guard building outside of base was the ovens that everyone would be sent in to.

Aulus:I was a kid in Sarasota, FL during the Cuban Missle Crisis, Twelve years old or so. It was a very freaky time.

The basement level of our church was a designated fall out shelter, with 55 gallon drums of water, crackers and such.

Sarasota is about sixty miles south of MacDill AFB, a primary Soviet target back then. Given the accuracy of Soviet ICBMs back then, any fired to hit that had about as good a chance of exploding over our house as over the AFB.

Just down Ringling Blvd, next to the paint store, some company set up shop selling fall out shelters. they had one model on the lot above ground. After 1962 or so, the bottom dropped out on that market and they went out of business. The lot became a used car dealership and the fall out shelter model got turned into the sales office, after they cut windows into it. I and my folks moved away in 1970, but I went back last September when we moved Mom into a condo in Sarasota. The used car lot and the fall out shelter/office is long gone. However, a friend told me those 55 gallon drums are still in the church basement.

I wonder if it would work as underground storage and aging for wine, whiskey, etc.? If the temp and humidity levels are good, you could pretty much just gut the place and add back some modern lighting and air handling. It doesn't look all that deep though, so it's probably not ideal.